I'm back! I know, I know I made a big boo-boo and deleted all my other stories, but that's because I took a look at them, and thought "none of this is believable". I mean, it was all girl insert stories to the real story. So, I'm back with a new story topic, and hopefully I can stick with this story.
Disclaimer: This is going to be hard to write again. I don't own the original story. This new story is all mine though!
"I know," I heard my wife giggling on the phone in the bedroom, presumably to my sister-in-law. I don't understand why they talk so early some days, and so late others. I had to roll my eyes at that thought. I was so glad that they lived so far away from one another. I don't think I could take the girl talk every single day in person.
Katherine seemed to have blown off the fight between Soda and I, and had continuously gotten along with him and Sandy, talking on the phone regularly with her. I, on the other hand, hadn't totally blown it off, but it didn't exactly bother me as bad as it had in the past. I just never got the chance to apologize and call it neutral, and if he had wanted to, he hasn't yet. I guess the actual distance between us really didn't help the cause. Unlike Ponyboy and me, Soda had moved to Florida to be with Sandy after they started talking again, and never came back to Tulsa.
I wiped the steam off the mirror and wrapped the towel around my waist. Grabbing the shaving cream, I tried hard not to listen to the one-sided conversation coming from the bedroom through the closed bathroom door.
"Well I don't know about that, but I will definitely ask him." There was a pause and then, "well maybe you guys can come here for a change. I feel bad having you guys to put us up several times out of the year, and we only return the favor once." More giggles. I sighed and rubbed shaving cream on my chin. Great, more awkwardness between us I thought and started to shave my face.
I stopped shaving and looked at my obviously aged faced in the mirror. I was only in my early forties, but the overwhelming stress of my late teenage years had taken a toll on my features. Chuckling, I thought back to how much taking care of my brothers really didn't help prepare for adulthood. I really couldn't believe I continuously lost my cool mentally at being woken up at 2am. I thought back to me losing my cool on Ponyboy multiple times and frowned. I couldn't believe we were the closer of the three of us now.
I was startled back into reality when I heard Katherine clear her throat. She was staring at me in the mirror with a soft smile on her face. I raised an eyebrow at her and continued shaving.
"That was Sandy," she said softly, while wrapping her arms around my torso from behind. I mumbled an 'uh huh' knowing that she had more to say.
"They want us all to come down. Take the kids to Disney, and whatnot. Soda had called Keith, as well. She's going to call Maria later on tonight. She was getting the kids ready for school, and had to let me go when Molly started carrying on." She sighed, tiredly. "I told them they could all come here, though. We could do Disney later on in the summer." She rubbed her nails along my chest, and nuzzled her nose in my back. Seriously?
"Why'd you tell her that?" I put down my razor, and turned around to face her. She looked taken back, and continued to run her nails along my back now.
"Because, I really hate long car rides." She looked up at me and smiled again. I could feel the anger rising as she thought she did nothing wrong.
"So now I have to put up my ignorant brother, his wife and his children?" She dropped her hands and looked up at me, wide eyed. I wiped the remaining shaving cream off my face.
"What in the world are you talking about…" Her voice fell off into a whisper as I stormed out of the bathroom. "Darry!"
"Seriously, Katherine? At least at their house I can keep to myself. Here I have to entertain them!" I dropped the towel off my waist and dressed the lower half of my body. She stood in the doorway to the bathroom with a hurt and angry look on her face. "Better yet, why don't we just not see them this summer!" I really shouldn't be yelling at her. She hadn't exactly done anything wrong, but now that this argument had started I wasn't backing down. Selfish, but I wasn't stopping now.
"Don't you yell at me, Darry Curtis!" She stormed over to me, and pushed me down onto the bed, standing, just barely, over me. "Whatever the hell your problem is with your brother needs to end now! So when they come up, you are going to apologize to him, because I am sick of this whole thing! I love Sandy and Soda and their kids so much. It's so nice to have such a wonderful extended family, too. Especially coming from such a small family where everyone fights all the time. Now make nice, for mine and your kids' sake if not yours!"
She glared down at me with her hands on her hips. Even from me sitting on the bed I was almost eyelevel with her. The anger was surging through me, and I stood up abruptly.
"You know, the day I married you was the first day in my life that I didn't have to think how my actions with affect other people. I always second guessed everything I ever did, even when I took guardianship over my brothers! I always second guessed if someone could do a better job than me. I always wondered what my life would have been like if I just threw it all away and started over. I never thought that way with you, Katherine! But now, I don't even know anymore!" I looked into her watering eyes one last time before grabbing a shirt and storming out of the room.
I heard a sob escape her mouth but continued down the stairs, slipping on my shoes and storming out the door. I got in my car, accelerated out of the driveway, and sped off down the road.
I knew in the bottom of my heart that I should have never said that to her. It wasn't true even in the slightest bit. But, thinking about how Soda had broken all of my trust then still irked me.
Katherine didn't deserve any of that, though. She had been there through all my extra baggage that I brought into our relationship, and never once questioned anything I did, even though I did. She gave me two beautiful children, and I had stormed out on her. I pounded my hand against the steering wheel. God, I was such an idiot. I guess I will never grow out of my anger.
She was right in every sense. I needed to apologize to my brother and to her. I signaled to pull into the left turn lane and the arrow turned green. As I was rounding the turn, I heard this terrible sound of metal against metal. I was thrown sideways in my seat and my head came in contact with the window.
Oh my god, I'm going to die I thought, and the pain throughout my head was horrible. I could feel the blood pouring down the side of my head, and taste the terrible metallic-y liquid in my mouth. My whole upper body throbbed with pain. As I dropped in and out of consciousness, the last thought to enter my mind was I cannot leave now without apologizing to my brother. The whole fight between me and Katherine was because of that. God, I love her so much. And my beautiful children; I need to tell them how much I love them. Jason and Kayla…
I tried to call out their names and my beautiful wife's name, but no words were coming out of my mouth.
As that thought raced around my head, my whole world went black.
It feels great to start writing again! Goodness, I can't wait for this story to become great.
Please read and review. I hope you enjoyed it!